I’m not sure if this makes me more or less of a loser, but I still have yet to see the movie Avatar. Those blue people just kind of creep the hell out of me. Nevertheless, it’s supposed to be a great film with a great message, so I’ll probably try to check it out while it’s still playing on the big screen.

This illustration was done by Tavis Coburn for the British Academy Film Awards and it totally kicks ass.

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This is a really cool illustration by Justin Gabbard for The New York Times, relating to this great piece by Thomas Friedman:

The fact that it has snowed like crazy in Washington — while it has rained at the Winter Olympics in Canada, while Australia is having a record 13-year drought — is right in line with what every major study on climate change predicts: The weather will get weird; some areas will get more precipitation than ever; others will become drier than ever.

…

China is quietly laughing at us right now. And Iran, Russia, Venezuela and the whole OPEC gang are high-fiving each other. Nothing better serves their interests than to see Americans becoming confused about climate change, and, therefore, less inclined to move toward clean-tech and, therefore, more certain to remain addicted to oil.

I’m pretty in love with the concept of IdeaPaint, which you can use to turn any paintable surface into a dry-erase board. I’m not sure why this hasn’t existed for years already, but it’s good to see that it’s out there now. It looks like it takes a bit of time to install, but it’s half the cost of a whiteboard, better-performing, more environmentally-friendly, and you can fill your entire wall with it.

Has anyone used IdeaPaint yet?

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Dude. So many great shots in this collection of old-school BMX photos.

‘No Impact Man’ is the entertaining story of New York writer Colin Beavan, who decided to go an entire year with as little environmental impact as possible. Watching him and his family go through that is kind of like a reality TV show, except you actually learn a few things along the way.

The film is now on DVD. You should probably rent it, not buy it.

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Intertidal

If I had $200 to spend on art right now, it would definitely go to this piece by Luke Ramsey & Zeesy Powers for Booooooom’s HELP HAITI Art Fundraiser.

I just picked up one of these new guidebooks for Denver Mountain Parks and must say it’s pretty fucking cool. Definitely one of the finest print pieces I’ve held in a while. It’s not a huge brochure, but it has plenty of information to get you started on your next outdoor adventure around the Denver area. The design by Jim Hargreaves of Barnhart, Denver was completed with amazing illustration work by Roger Beerworth to help give it the nostalgic look of park advertising from the early 1900s.

True to wilderness park values, the brochure is printed on FSC certified, 100% post-consumer paper. You can pick up a copy by going down to the Denver Parks and Recreation office, or you can simply download it as a PDF.

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I’m really digging the work of Brian Rea of Los Angeles. His illustration style seems to be perfectly suited for The New York Times, where he’s done quite a bit of work. A new one that I just came across is the top image here. It’s for an article about the extreme cold that parts of America have been experiencing lately, and how it does not represent a global trend:

Santa, by North Pole standards, has been experiencing a balmy winter.

“Pretty much all of the Arctic is above normal,” said Dr. Walter Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. In some areas, the temperatures are as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

I know it’s been crazy cold lately back in the Midwest, but that’s really not uncommon. Makes me really happy that I’m now living in Colorado where we’re looking at highs near 60 this week.

Oh, and back to Mr. Rea… how awesome are these buttons?

Remnants of the Biosphere

There are some great photos by Noah Sheldon documenting the decrepit state of Biosphere 2.

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